Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
UNH to help map state’s broadband gaps
From UNH News Service: NH GRANIT, a mapping agency for the state based at the University of New Hampshire, is receiving close to a million dollars from the N.H. Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) to inventory and map statewide broadband coverage that is...
Unleaded gas coming to small planes, finally
I got my general aviation pilot's license close to 40 years ago and haven't flown since - couldn't afford it then, don't need it now - but recently I learned something that I should have known all along: I was flying with leaded gasoline! While commercial jets use...
Do cell phones belong in the wilderness?
The Appalachian Mountain Club has an excellent piece online (right here) debating the role of cell phones when hiking in the White Mountains and wilderness areas of the Northeast. It's well worth a full read. The story includes an interview with Lt. Jim Kneeland of NH...
In Boston, a material not found on Earth is being made
Researchers in Northeastern University in Boston and Cambridge in the UK have figuring out how to atomically manipulate iron and nickle to create tetrataenite, a material known only from meteorite samples that isn't known to exist on Earth. That's a potentially big...
Methane-leaking landfills dominate map of NH greenhouse gas emitters
Two of New Hampshire's landfills, in Rochester and Bethlehem, are by far the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas in the state according to a just-released global survey. The Bethlehem landfill, North Country Environmental Service, emitted 212.29 kilotons of greenhouse...
‘Burnt out’ N.H. publisher turns over reins of ‘Amazing Stories’ magazine
Steve Davidson, the New Hampshire man who owned the trademark of the name "Amazing Stories" and in 2012 brought back the classic science fiction magazine, first digitally and then in print (erratically), has stepped down: In straightforward terms, I’m burnt out, I’m...
N.H. patents through Nov. 6
(Note: The US Patent Service has changed the way it reports patents and as a result, we can no longer include direct links to each patent. You can find them here, using the patent number. Sorry for the inconvenience.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The...
Ballot-counting machine using Linux was tested in NH
Voters in three small New Hampshire towns will be putting their ballots into a new type of counting machine Tuesday – one that runs on open-source software rather than company-controlled software – in a pilot project to see whether digital transparency can increase...
A drone’s look at that reflect-heat-from-Earth experiment in Plymouth
In October I wrote about an interest experiment to see if reflecting heat upwards via mirrors could be a climate mitigation strategy. (The story is here.) Test patterns are being set near Plymouth State University and at NHTI, Concord's community college, to see what...
‘Compostable’ plastic doesn’t, usually
CNN reports: "A new study conducted in the UK found that 60% of products labeled as compostable do not fully break down in home compost." And unlike conventional plastics, these alternatives are largely unregulated, despite their advertised benefits." (The story is...
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Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 – yes, that long – and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on WGIR-AM radio..
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you’ll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.